Mealey's Data Privacy : Mealey's : Legal News & Analysis

Mealey's Data Privacy

August 23, 2023
Plaintiff: T-Mobile Board Beholden To Parent Company Couldn’t Stop AI Data Move

WILMINGTON, Del. — A telecommunications company was helpless to prevent an “aggressive and reckless scheme” centralizing data for use in training artificial intelligence that placed the data and shareholders at risk because its board was beholden to its parent company, plaintiffs told a Delaware judge in opposing dismissal.
August 22, 2023
4th Circuit Vacates Class Certification Ruling In Marriott Data Breach Suit

RICHMOND, Va. — A trial court’s failure to consider the impact of a putative class waiver, to which relevant customers of Marriott International Inc. agreed, prior to certifying several classes related to the hotel chain’s data breach was an error, a Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, vacating the certification ruling and remanding for consideration of the waiver.
August 22, 2023
Judge Remands UCL Suit Accusing Telehealth Company Of Disclosing Private Data

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge granted a plaintiffs’ motion to remand to state court their putative class action against a telehealth provider for allegedly sharing their data in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) after finding the provider equitably estopped from contending that its place of business is in Massachusetts, not California.
August 21, 2023
Magistrate Stays MOVEit Data Breach Suits Pending JPMDL Consolidation Decision

MINNEAPOLIS — Two weeks after staying a putative class action over a hacking incident attributed to a file transfer app vulnerability, a Minnesota federal magistrate judge issued a revised ruling staying other cases over related data breaches in the same district pending a ruling by the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) on a motion to consolidate all such cases.
August 17, 2023
Judge: Electronic Data Exclusion Bars Coverage For Home Depot’s Data Breach Loss

CINCINNATI — A federal judge in Ohio held Aug. 16 that an insurance policy’s electronic data exclusion bars coverage for Home Depot’s losses stemming from a 2014 data breach, granting the insurers’ motions for summary judgment in Home Depot’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking damages up to the full collective policy limits of $50 million.
August 04, 2023
Louisiana Panel Reverses Ruling For Insurer In Suit Alleging Insured Stole Files

BATON ROUGE, La. — A Louisiana appeals panel held that a residential mortgage broker’s electronic loan files are “tangible” under state law and, therefore, can be defined as “‘property’ that is susceptible to ‘loss of use’” under a competitor’s business liability insurance policy, reversing a summary judgment ruling in favor of an insurer that intervened in the broker’s lawsuit alleging that its insured used stolen files to broker mortgage loans for its customers.
August 04, 2023
Magistrate Again Dismisses Suit Against Google For Remote Schooling Hack

OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal magistrate judge dismissed several claims brought against Google LLC by a minor child who claims that Google invaded his privacy while he was required to use a Google platform for remote schooling during COVID-19 and failed to prevent a hack of his computer device that resulted in a sexually explicit message being sent to his teacher.
August 03, 2023
Mesothelioma Defendants Defend Need For Blood Draw, Genetic Testing

LOS ANGELES — A couple alleging that a man’s asbestos exposure led to his mesothelioma cannot now seek to block a blood draw for genetic testing that could potentially identify a genetic mutation that could go to the heart of the causation question in the case, defendants tell a California judge.
August 03, 2023
Consolidated Class Suit Over U-Haul Data Breach Mostly Dismissed

PHOENIX— Mostly granting a dismissal motion by U-Haul International Inc., an Arizona federal judge disposed of 11 of 12 putative class claims brought against the company related to a 2022 breach of its network, finding most of the federal and state claims over the theft of U-Haul customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) to be insufficiently pleaded.
August 02, 2023
Apple Wants Confidential Materials Sealed In Privacy Suit Over Siri Recording

OAKLAND, Calif. — Responding to a motion to consider whether certain deposition materials should be sealed, which was filed by the plaintiffs in a putative class action over purported unauthorized recording by Apple Inc.’s Siri, Apple asked a California federal court to seal the items because they contain “highly confidential and proprietary sensitive information” about the digital personal assistant.
August 01, 2023
Washington Appeals Court Reverses Medicaid Data Order In Opioid Case

SEATTLE — The Washington Court of Appeals on July 31 reversed a state trial court’s ruling allowing the release of certain information about opioid-related Medicaid claims to defendants Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc.
July 28, 2023
Magistrate Rules Against Insurer in Coverage Dispute Over BIPA Violations

CHICAGO — A federal magistrate judge in Illinois on July 27 denied an insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying class action alleging that its insured violated the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), concluding that neither the ejusdem generis or noscitur a sociis canon resolves an ambiguity in the policy’s “recording and distribution,” “access or disclosure” and “employment-related practices” exclusions and that the exclusions’ plain text is so broad that they “would eliminate statutory claims for the ‘personal and advertising injury’” the policies allege to cover elsewhere.
July 27, 2023
Contract, Eavesdropping Claims Survive In Data-Sharing Suit Against Hospital

CHICAGO — Although an Illinois federal judge dismissed most of the putative class claims related to a health care company’s sharing of patient information with Meta Platforms Inc. and Google LLC via a web beacon, he found that claims for breach of contract and eavesdropping were sufficiently pleaded to survive a dismissal motion.
July 27, 2023
Class Claims Over Website Tracking Dismissed For Lack Of Jurisdiction

SAN DIEGO — A wellness website user who brought a putative class complaint alleging that her and other users’ interactions on the site are recorded and replayed in violation of California privacy laws failed to show that a federal court in California has subject matter jurisdiction or general or specific personal jurisdiction over the website operator, a federal judge ruled, granting dismissal with leave to amend.
July 26, 2023
Appeal Of OPM Data Breach Settlement Dismissed For Lack Of Objection, Prejudice

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel unanimously dismissed an appeal of the October 2022 final approval that settled the eight-year old class action over a 2015 data breach experienced by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), finding that the appellant did not establish that she is a class member bound by the settlement or that “she has been stripped of a legal claim or otherwise been prejudiced by the order.”
July 25, 2023
Covington Must Disclose Some Clients’ Names To SEC In Response To Subpoena

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission is entitled to have access to the names of certain clients of Covington & Burling LLP whose material nonpublic information (MNPI) was accessed during a cyberattack, a District of Columbia federal judge ruled July 24, partly granting the SEC’s motion to enforce the subpoena, while trimming the number of clients from a list of 298 to just seven that were deemed relevant to the commission’s investigation.
July 25, 2023
$350 Million Settlement Of T-Mobile Data Breach Suit Receives Final Approval

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One year after he preliminarily approved settlement of a multidistrict litigation over a 2021 data breach experienced by T-Mobile US Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. (T-Mobile, collectively), a Missouri federal judge granted final approval, finding that the agreement satisfied the requirements of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(e).
July 21, 2023
2 Facebook Users Oppose Final Approval Of $725M Profile-Sharing Suit

SAN FRANCISCO — Two class members in the consolidated class action over the sharing of Facebook users’ personally identifiable information (PII) with Cambridge Analytica filed an objection in California federal court to the preliminarily approved settlement, calling the proposed $725 million settlement amount “an unjustifiable 99.9% discount of available statutory damages” that “is neither fair, reasonable nor adequate.”
July 21, 2023
Judge Approves $25 Million Settlement Of FTC’s Child Privacy Claims Against Amazon

SEATTLE — A Washington federal judge approved a $25 million stipulated order between the Federal Trade Commission and Amazon.com Inc., settling the commission’s claims of privacy violations by the online retailer’s collection of children’s voice recordings and transcripts via Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant.
July 20, 2023
Illinois High Court Denies White Castle Rehearing In BIPA Fingerprint Scan Suit

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois Supreme Court majority ruling that individual fingerprint scans constitute separate, actionable events under the state’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) will stand, with the majority denying White Castle System Inc.’s petition for rehearing.
July 18, 2023
Biometric Data Collection Class Claims Against Dating App Survive Dismissal Motion

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Illinois denied a motion filed by the companies associated with the operation of an online dating application to dismiss a putative class complaint alleging violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting, storing and using users’ data, finding that the lead plaintiff sufficiently showed that the court has specific personal jurisdiction over the case based on the defendants’ activities directed at Illinois.
July 17, 2023
9th Circuit Won’t Reconsider Whether COPPA Preempts Children’s Privacy Suit

SEATTLE — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel opted not to disturb its finding that the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) does not expressly preempt state law privacy, unfair competition and consumer protection claims, denying a petition by Google LLC and several children’s YouTube channel operators to rehear an appeal of a dispute over the companies’ purported collection of children’s personally identifiable information (PII).
July 13, 2023
Customer, McDonald’s: AI Voiceprint Class Lawsuit Dismissed With Prejudice

CHICAGO — McDonald’s Corp. and a customer who alleged in a putative class lawsuit that the franchisor violates the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) by collecting voiceprints to place drive-through orders filed a stipulation of dismissal on July 12 in a federal court in Illinois.
July 13, 2023
7th Circuit: Patient Lacks Standing To Sue For Health Data Sharing With Google

CHICAGO — Affirming the dismissal of an Illinois man’s putative privacy and contractual class claims over a hospital’s health data-sharing agreement with Google LLC in conjunction with a joint artificial intelligence research venture, a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel found that the one-time patient failed to plead any concrete harm to establish his standing to sue under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.
July 13, 2023
Google Accused Of Stealing Data From Gmail Accounts To Train AI Chatbot

SAN FRANCISCO — Eight anonymous plaintiffs filed a putative class action accusing Alphabet Inc., Google LLC and their AI subsidiary of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL), copyright law and privacy laws by “stealing everything ever created and shared on the internet by hundreds of millions of Americans,” including the plaintiffs’ private data contained in their private Google email accounts, to train their AI chatbot.